I know that the literature says that you have to take this pill within three hours of the same time every day or it is reduced in effectiveness. Is three hours really the cut-off time - how about 4 or 5? Would it make that much difference?
Hey, you know what they call people who cheat on birth control?
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Eh, Mel, they test these things, and test these things, and test these things, and if the manufacturer says “take it at the same time every day,” then the manufacturer means “take it at the same time every day.” The idea is to keep a certain level of hormone circulating in your bloodstream, and this is best accomplished by taking the pill at the same time every day.
Yeah. Don’t play games with your birth control pill. My OB/GYN told me that if I’m more than two hours late, I need to use backup protection for the next 48 hours. The literature says three hours. I’ve heard from some people who were instructed not to be more than one hour off. If you go more than the recommended time, you might be OK, and then again you might not. When the potential result is a living human being that you will be responsible for raising to adulthood, I would err on the safe side.
The progesterone-only pill, or “mini-pill”, is the least effective birth control pill available. Typically it is prescribed to breastfeeding mothers or other people who cannot, for whatever reason, take the hormones available in the regular pill. The reason it is not prescribed to more people is, I suspect, that it is a major pain in the ass to remember to take the pill at the exact time every day. I had to buy a watch with an alarm to remind me to do it.
So, basically, yeah, what DDG said.